UPDATE: Mounties charge Harb and Brazeau in Senate expenses scandal

RCMP have charged former senator Mac Harb and suspended senator Patrick Brazeau with fraud and breach of trust over their Senate expenses.

Assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud, the commanding officer of the RCMP's national division, announced the charges today.

Michaud says the RCMP is not pursuing allegations of bank fraud against Harb, however, because the allegations are not supported by the evidence.

The Mounties have spent months investigating allegations in the Senate expenses scandal.

Harb is a former Liberal senator who resigned last summer after police alleged he should not have collected a housing allowance for a residence he claimed about 100 kilometres north of the capital.

Brazeau, a former Conservative, was suspended from the Senate after similar allegations about his housing claims. Both men have insisted they did nothing wrong and were tripped up by ambiguous Senate rules.

If the RCMP looked a little further and dug a little deeper, they could arrest and charge a whole bunch more. These leeches must be made an example so others will think twice before stealing for taxpayers.